Northwestern knocks off No. 23 Ohio State 71-70
Northwestern 71, No. 23 Ohio State 70: Miller Kopp scored 23 points, Boo Buie had 14 and host Northwestern (6-1, 3-0 Big Ten) beat Ohio State (7-2, 1-2) on Saturday.
Pete Nance added 10 points for the Wildcats, who won their fourth straight.
E.J. Liddell led Ohio State with 15 points. Kyle Young added 14 points and Seth Towns had 11 for the Buckeyes, who had won two straight and four of five.
Northwestern is 3-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since the 1967-68 season. The Wildcats were 3-17 in the league last season. The Buckeyes opened the second half on a 13-7 run before Northwestern rallied with a 7-1 run. Ohio State led by seven after halftime, but Northwestern came back with an 11-2 run.
No. 1 Gonzaga 98, Virginia 75: Corey Kispert recorded career highs with 32 points and nine 3-pointers, leading Gonzaga (7-0) to a romp over Virginia (4-2), the most recent NCAA champion, in Fort Worth, Texas.
The game at a neutral site in Texas was essentially the Zags’ replacement for what was supposed to be a 1-2 matchup against Baylor in early December in Indianapolis.
No. 18 Illinois 69, Indiana 60: Ayo Dosunmu scored 30 points, Kofi Cockburn added 15 points and 15 rebounds, and host Illinois (7-3, 3-1 Big Ten) beat Indiana (5-4, 0-2).
The game was close until about midway through the second half, when Dosunmu hit three consecutive 3-pointers to fuel Illinois’ 14-0 run. Andre Curbelo added five assists for Illinois.
No. 6 Houston 63, UCF 54: Marcus Sasser scored 19 points and Caleb Mills delivered seven of his 12 points in the closing minutes to help Houston (7-0, 2-0 American Athletic Conference) pull away for a victory over host UCF (3-2, 1-1). The Cougars overcame cold shooting by holding UCF to one field goal over the final 8:50 to remain unbeaten and deny the Knights a second win over a Top 25 opponent in a week.
As good as Houston was defensively down the stretch, though, UCF was just as tough on the Cougars. Mills was the only Houston player to score from the field in the final seven minutes, driving the baseline for a layup that made it 5045 and adding a three-point play that put his team up 57-48 with just over a minute to go.